How to Recover from Service Mistakes: Turn Every Customer Experience Breakdown into a Breakthrough

As customers, we've all had it happen.

• We've waited at a store for someone (anyone) to serve us.
• We cruised through a drive-thru and found items missing when we opened the bag, or
• The salesperson was pushy and condescending - at best.

Unfortunately, despite best efforts, our customers also have glitches in their service experience. Let's look at how we can go from raging customers to raving fans!

In circumstances where products or services don't live up to the expectations of consumers, a critical moment-of-truth occurs. From the perspective of the customer, the internal dialogue usually goes something like this:

“Should I let the business know that this isn’t right or should I leave bad enough alone?” “Will they blame me by saying something like, ‘That’s what you ordered’?” “Will they stand behind this product or is it my problem now?” or “How much hassle will I encounter in an effort to get this remedied?”

From the company’s side of the interaction, the internal dialogue should be, “

What can we do to increase the likelihood people will let us know when they encounter a problem?” “How can we ensure that every employee knows how to handle service recovery?” and “How do we use this breakdown as an opportunity to demonstrate integrity and facilitate greater levels of customer engagement?”

Since complaints are opportunities to both, re-engage customers and demonstrate alignment between our promises and actions, leaders of world-class customer experience (CX) brands encourage customers to share feedback and train their teams to turn breakdowns into breakthroughs.

Make a Service Promise that Invites Customers to Tell You When You Underperform

Let's use Starbucks as an example.

For the coffee giant, service recovery begins with a customer-facing promise displayed in their stores and website. It reads,

“We want you to be completely satisfied. If for any reason you are not satisfied with your purchase, you may return it for a replacement or refund of the purchase price.”

While it is easy to make a promise, it is much more difficult to stand behind it. John Hargrave, the author of Sir John Hargrave’s Mischief Maker’s Manual, decided to put the Starbucks promise to the test. John writes, “But would Starbucks really replace anything? To find out, I decided to buy the most perishable item on the menu, keep it in my garage for several weeks, then attempt to exchange it.”

Suffice it to say, the barista who handled John Hargrave’s “soured” drink did so graciously (even though it clearly was not a service or product breakdown created by Starbucks). In the context of this example, here are four questions to consider:

1. Do you have a clearly defined service promise?
2. Is that promise prominently displayed?
3. Have you trained your team on how to honor your service promise?
4. How confident are customers that can rely on your service promise?

Establish and Train to a Service Recovery Model

Here's an example of a five-step service recovery model that I use with my clients:

1) Share a genuine, empathetic, and compassionate reaction to the person’s distress. Assuming you have hired customer-facing team members who possess sufficient emotional intelligence, it's imperative to continually stretch their empathy skills. This can be accomplished through role-playing and by asking your team to imagine what customers "might be feeling." Another worthwhile approach is to ask your team how they would want to be treated if the breakdown had happened to them.

2) Offer appropriate apologies. The keyword in the previous sentence is "appropriate."

Here are 2 examples of inappropriate apologies:

"I am sorry you feel that way." - That wording is not an apology. It is a challenge to the reasonableness of the other person's distress.

"I am sorry our company seriously wronged you." This type of response is frowned on by corporate lawyers because it implies egregious conduct. It also pushes the blame onto others. As you stand before the customer - you are the company!

Compare the examples above to an apology that fits the appropriate category:

"It sounds like you are understandably frustrated. I am sorry. Let's see what I can do to make this right." In this example, the response starts by empathizing with the customer's emotional state. It then shifts to a person-to-person expression of care. A representative of the brand owns the problem - whether or not the person offering the apology is individually responsible for it. Finally, the apology ends with a shift toward resolution.

3) Let the person know you will work toward a satisfactory solution. It's important not to promise a complete and perfect resolution but to use words like "I assure you I will work with you on this" or "My team and I will work to make this right."

4) Individually and through your team's resources, see that the problem is taken care of in a way that meets the customer's satisfaction and does not recur. Satisfaction implies a reasonable and possible solution. When wronged, most customers want to be heard. Most also have realistic expectations for the needed remedy. Occasionally, customers seek unreasonable resolutions, which are best addressed with responses like, "I hear you are asking for X and this is what I can actually do for you." In cases where empowered frontline team members can't achieve resolution, great CX organizations have crafted clear escalation plans (I'll leave that topic for another newsletter).

5) Go one step further to demonstrate that you want to compensate the person for their loss or frustration. Notice the word "step." This can be an action like a follow-up call from a manager or a tangible service recovery item. At a restaurant, an item might be a complimentary dessert in response to a long kitchen delay.

While working with UCLA Health Systems, leaders developed a service recovery kit with items like a parking or food voucher. You will want to remember equity theory as you think about how much to "compensate" customers for their distress.

Equity theorists suggest that most people react to others based on their perception of fairness or justice. For example, if people feel extremely overvalued or extremely undervalued during a service interaction, they form negative opinions of the provider. If you don't let a customer know that their distress matters (e.g., comp their dessert), they potentially feel undervalued and might take their business elsewhere. If you overvalue them (e.g., comp their entire meal), they are also likely to view you unfavorably. Giving too much to customers negates your value and causes them to wonder if you will be able to stay in business.

The optimal position in service recovery is one where your customer feels they were slightly overvalued.

I hope you found these tips helpful!

This is my first LinkedIn Newsletter, and if you found value in it, I hope you will subscribe and share it.

I am committed to creating helpful Customer Experience content and am eager to hear your input and suggestions.

In addition to communicating with me on LinkedIn, I welcome the opportunity to serve you. To learn more or reach out to me, click the button below: